This site is currently dedicated to covering the fortunes of the South Western High School MUSTANGS football team in York County, Pennsylvania. SOUTH WESTERN MUSTANGS GRIDIRON columns will be posted for a preseason review and following each game during the season. And we will follow my Alma Mater, the CUTTERS of Fair Lawn High School in Bergen County, New Jersey, with THE GRIDIRON columns by my twin brother Dick, the stadium announcer "Voice of the CUTTERS."

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Monday, November 18, 2013

SECOND ROUND PLAYOFF ACTION IN FLHS GRIDIRON HISTORY - 2013

A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

By Dick Engelhardt

The New Jersey State
Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA)
instituted playoffs in 1974. Before that, sectional and group championships
were awarded using power points. Now they are decided on the GRIDIRON. Power points only come into
play in making the playoffs and in seeding in them.

In 1980 Pete Natale’s CUTTERS
shared the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) title with the FIGHTING
MUSTANGS of Clifton High and the HORNETS
of Passaic Valley. Having come from behind to beat the INDIANS of Passaic 27-18 at GIANTS
STADIUM in the 1st round, Fair Lawn faced PV in the final. Joe
Biscaha’s HORNETS shut our CUTTERS out 20-0. Biscaha had played
for the NY GIANTS.

In 1989 – Fair Lawn got into the expanded North Jersey, Section 1, Group IV playoffs by virtue of being
undefeated at selection time. Mike Alberque’s Northern Bergen Interscholastic
League (NBIL) Division 1 champion CUTTERS upset the BRUINS of North Bergen and the Hudson County Interscholastic
Athletic Association (HCIAA) 14-7 in
the 1st round. In the next round they faced the HCIAARED WINGS of
Hoboken in the “fumble that wasn’t a fumble” game. With Fair Lawn leading 14-0
Hoboken picked up a 1st down but fumbled. Our CUTTERS might well have scored again to ice the game but a second
official overruled the fumble and Hoboken scored on the drive and went on to
win a 19-14 thriller.

The RED WINGS got their comeuppance losing to the Northern New Jersey
Interscholastic League (NNJIL) INDIANS of Passaic in the finals.

In 2009 Stan Myles’ CUTTERS, playing in the new North
Jersey Tri-County Conference (NJTCC)
Division 3, made the playoffs. In the first round they edged the INDIANS of Passaic 39-38 in the most
thrilling game played in FLHS
history. It was the first “Home” playoff game ever at SASSO FIELD. The other two “Home” games were both in 1980 at GIANTS STADIUM.

In the second round
our CUTTERS fell 42-7 to the GAELS of Roxbury, champions of the
Northwest Jersey Conference (NJC)
American Division. Who went on to take the title.